How a Trailer and the Internet Made Lance Mungia's "Six-String Samurai"

How a Trailer and the Internet Made Lance Mungia's"Six-String Samurai"

by Tara Veneruso

In the world of independents, it is essential to be creative not onlywith the script, but also with financing and promotion. Lance Mungia'sdebut feature film "Six-String Samurai," opening Stateside this weekafter several screenings in the Midnight Madness section of the TorontoInternational FIlm Festival, from first-time distributor Palm Pictures,did just that. The film was financed by HSX Films (now IgniteEntertainment) after they saw a trailer -- and it is with this trailerthat Mungia attributes the film's magical financing and eventualcompletion. "Samurai" also utilized the vast tool of the Internet topromote, market, and even name the film.

Mungia hooked up with star/co-writer Jeffrey Falcon, whose creditsincludes 17 Hong Kong action films, at Santa Monica's American FilmMarket and found Director of Photography Kristian Bernier from acold-call Dramalogue submission. The team set out into Death Valley toshoot the low budget, post-apocalyptic action flick with Falcon asBuddy, the guitar slinging hero, and Justin McGuire as an orphan whoBuddy can't seem to shake off. The pair head out to Lost Vegas so thatBuddy can fulfill his dream of replacing the late Elvis as King. Thefilm has won several accolades including Slamdance's Kodak Vision awardfor Bernier's Cinematography and the In:Sync Speed Razor Award for JamesFrisa's editing.

This August, indieWIRE caught up with Mungia and Falcon as they hungposters around Los Angeles in preparation for the film's release.

indieWIRE: Everyone has heard the stories - but rarely do films get themoney for completion from merely a trailer. Your film was trulyfinanced from shopping your trailer around. How did you initiallydecide to do a trailer.

Lance Mungia: First, I made a short film through Loyola Marymount ("AGarden for Rio") which went out to the Hampton's Film Festival, ChicagoFilm Festival, Ft. Lauderdale Film Festival, and also to Sundance. Iknew that I really wanted to make an action film and we thought we coulddo this really cheap. I knew that if you have something as a student ata festival you need to have something to back it up with to take you tothe next level. I had been intending to shoot the whole film myself for$25,000. We managed to get free film, a free camera which we got bybegging and showing the short film. It helped that people knew that Icould really make a movie, especially one that was getting into majorfestivals. We were shooting on weekends in Death Valley and withexpired 100 ft. rolls of Fuji film stock.

iW: 100 ft. rolls for an action film?

Mungia: We had a lot of mags of the expired stock [laughs]. Buteventually we had spent all of the money, had shot less than 20% of whatis now in the film and had already spent close to $50,000. Luckily, thetiming was that we went to Sundance right when we had run out of moneyand that's when we decided to cut a trailer. Ultimately it was thetrailer that allowed me to pitch the film.

iW: How did you get financial interest for the trailer at Sundance?

Mungia: After every screening of the short, I would get up and say thatI am working on a feature and showing the trailer in my hotel room. Wewould bring people up from the lobby of the Yarrow (a hotel andtheatrical venue during Sundance) - and that's what started the buzz.Next, Jeffrey Falcon and I went to the AFM (American Film Market) inSanta Monica which was an ideal place to meet a bunch of companies in ashort time. We took the AFM catalog and started dialing up thedifferent hotel suites of each company from the lobby. By callingeveryone and throwing in the fear factor (saying we already have ameeting with so-and-so at 3pm) we met with at least half of the peoplewe called. We showed the trailer and then the script. That's how I gotan agent [Cassian Elwes] at the William Morris Agency which led us toHSX and two or three companies that really wanted the film at the time.We went with HSX because Michael Burns and Leanna Creel really put theirmoney where their mouth was and were ready to go right away.

The trailer also helped us get into Slamdance. We sent Dan Mirvish,Peter Baxter, and the guys at Slamdance the trailer which they loved,and eventually got them to see a screening of the newly completed film.Slamdance said that the trailer is what set it apart from the stacks ofsubmissions.

iW: I want to jump ahead to the first time you and HSX utilized theInternet to help the film with promotion and marketing. What were someof the first Internet interactions which happened on the film?

Mungia: HSX began as the website hsx.com (Hollywood Stock Exchange). Itis a stock trading game where people buy and trade stocks about the filmbusiness.

We actually picked the title after putting up a contest online to namethe movie. The film was originally called "The Blade", but after NewLine sent a letter saying they owned that title HSX put out a contest ontheir website to come up with a name. Thousands of people tried to namethe film, and in the end it was chosen by Max Broker who runs the HSXwebsite.

iW: How else did the Internet help you?

Mungia: The Internet has been an amazing tool to spread the word onthis film. As far back as heading for Slamdance, we had designed awebsite and put up the address everywhere. At Slamdance, a lot ofpeople had heard about it and came to it. The whole time we wouldalways mention the website. This helped get more intrigue and helped inthe sale of the film.

iW: A lot of filmmakers have websites now for their film, but theyhaven't received as much attention as "Six-String" What other eventshave pushed it further?

Mungia: It really picked up when Harry Knowles of aint-it-cool-news.comand Chris Gore of filmthreat.com reviewed the film. The internet becamethe primary mode for the following of the film. The great thing is thaton the Internet big Hollywood films can be seen right next to our films,particularly on Harry's site. This created a grassroots effort aroundthe world to help us promote the film. [The Internet] is all aboutequality and freedom of speech because anyone can speak. It just sohappens that the audience that likes this film is also one that uses theweb.

iW: Has your website helped in other ways besides give an overallawareness for the film?

Mungia: People are writing us from literally all over the world(Germany, Japan, Australia, Switzerland) and saying they heard about thefilm. There is a guy in Iceland who is helping to get the film into atheater up there. And he has really done it! He is getting the film toplay at a theater in Iceland! He called Palm Pictures and is organizinga theater to play the film.

iW: How has the Internet helped out with the soundtrack?

Mungia: Another example of how the internet is working for us happens tobe with our soundtrack (produced by Brian Tyler with music of his andthe Red Elvises). After it was released we had many e-mails askingwhere they could get it. Instantly we could let them know where itcould be found. Then we started getting e-mail saying that severalstores required the title to be hyphenated to be found in their stores.I was able to make a few calls to Rykodisc and post the solution up onthe bulletin board. The fact that the internet is immediate and caninstantaneously reach all of our fans is vital to the potential successof "Six-String Samurai".

iW: So Palm Pictures was open to you heavily promoting the film on theInternet.

Mungia: We are the flagship film for Palm Pictures. They have beenwonderful at getting the film into some really great theaters. Theinternet is all a part of that. In Switzerland there is a film sitethat plays our trailer which has become really popular. It could bebecause of the searchable word Samurai or Harry Knowles's site - butsomehow the word has spread all over the world. I think it is theprimary reason there is a grassroots following. We even send posters topeople we talk to online and they put it up in stores and around theirtown. That's what we are doing all day tomorrow - posters are going outto Wisconsin, Iowa, Texas, and Kansas City.

[Tara Veneruso directed the award-winning documentary "Janis JoplinSlept Here" and has spoken on numerous film festival panels about"filmmaking on the internet." Veneruso recently directed the upcoming"Chemical Generation" web series and is the Director of Film Evaluationand Outreach for Next Wave Films, which provides finishing funds andother vital support to emerging filmmakers. Next Wave Films can bereached at 310.392.1720.]